Transcription
Today, I'm going to show you the family tree of Greek and Roman gods. I'll be using my Greek mythology family tree chart, which, by the way, is available as a poster from my website, usefulcharts.com. In most cases, each Greek god had a Roman equivalent. For example, the Greek god Zeus was called Jupiter by the Romans. In this video, I'll be using the Greek names throughout, but please note that the Roman names are in fact listed on the chart as well.
So, I'll be looking at three generations of gods: the primordial gods, the Titans, and the Olympians. And one other thing I should mention before we begin: there are several different ancient sources that talk about these gods, and sometimes they differ when it comes to who was the parent or child of who. So, in some cases, I had to make a choice, and therefore you might disagree with that choice. But just remember, we're talking about mythology here, and therefore there's really no such thing as a correct version of events. [Music]
We're going to start up here with the first generation of gods, the primordial gods, who, according to some sources, are said to have been born out of chaos. These include Eros, Elder—not to be confused with the younger Eros, whom the Romans called Cupid. Then we have Tartarus, the original god of the underworld; Gaia, Mother Earth, the most important of the primordial gods; Erebus, god of darkness; and Nyx, god of night.
Now, there are two gods here at the top that don't really fit anywhere on the tree, being that they exist beyond space and time. There's Cronus, Old Father Time, and Ananke, the goddess of Destiny. Don't confuse this Cronus, spelled with a CH, with the Titan named Cronus, spelled with a K or C, whom we'll meet later. So, the tree really starts from Gaia.
From Gaia came three gods: the mountains, the sky, and the sea, named Ourea, Uranus, and Pontus. Take note of the colors because I use them throughout the chart: green represents earth gods, light blue represents sky gods, and dark blue represents sea gods. Now, Gaia and Uranus actually became a couple, and from them came the Cyclops, monsters with one big eye; the Hecatoncheires, monsters with fifty heads and one hundred arms; and most importantly, the twelve Titans.
But before we look at the Titans, let's look at the rest of the primordial gods. From Tartarus, the god of the underworld, comes several monsters, shown in brown, such as Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the gates of hell; the dragon from which Jason and the Argonauts stole the Golden Fleece; and the Sphinx, who had the face of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of a bird.
Some of the other famous monsters from Greek mythology came from Pontus, the original god of the sea. These include the Harpies, the Sirens, and the Gorgons. The most famous Gorgon was, of course, Medusa, who had snakes for her hair. One look at her face would turn anyone to stone. The descendants of Pontus also included the Graeae; they are three grey witches who share an eye and a tooth and can see the future. Finally, from Pontus comes Nereus, another important sea god, sometimes known as the Old Man of the Sea. He's the father of the Nereids, a large group of female sea nymphs.
The last group of beings that fall under the primordial category are those that came from Erebus and Nyx. These include Charon, the ferryman to the underworld, as well as several figures that are personifications of various concepts, such as death or sleep. Note that on this chart, whenever you see a black square, that means a god or creature that lived in the underworld. Whenever you see a red square, that means a god that is a personification of a particular concept and who doesn't really fit into a category such as earth, sky, sea, or underworld.
Okay, so now it's time to look at this second generation of gods, the Titans. As I mentioned earlier, the Titans are the children of Gaia and Uranus, and there are twelve of them. Let's start over here on the left first. We have Oceanus and Tethys, god of the ocean and goddess of the rivers. They take the place of Pontus in this second generation of gods and are the parents of the Oceanids. The Oceanids were a large group of sea goddesses, many of whom were the mothers of other important gods, which we'll get to later.
Next, we have Hyperion, god of light, and Thea, goddess of the ether. From them we get Helios, the original god of the Sun, and Selene, the original goddess of the Moon. The Roman names for these gods are the basis for our terms solar and lunar. At this point, I should note that some of the twelve Titans are grouped together as couples, but some are not. One that is not is Crius. He married a daughter of Pontus, and from them came Pallas, the original god of war. Pallas married Styx, and together they were the parents of Kratos. In recent years, Kratos has become well-known because he shows up in the God of War video game series. He had a sister named Nike, who the famous shoe company is named after.
We then get Cronus, god of the harvest, and Rhea, goddess of fertility. We'll come back to them in a second, but for now, note that in this generation we get a couple for the sea, a couple for the sky, and a couple for the earth. The rest of the Titans include: Iapetus, famous goddess of law and order; Epimetheus, god of mortal life; Mnemosyne, goddess of memory; Coeus, the celestial axis; and Phoebe, a minor moon goddess. Out of these five, Iapetus is perhaps the most important because he was the father of Atlas, the god who is often shown with a globe on his back, as well as Prometheus and Epimetheus, gods of foresight and hindsight. Prometheus is the god who created mankind, and Epimetheus is the god who married the first woman, Pandora. Whenever you see a purple box on this chart, that indicates that that person is either a mortal human or a demigod—demigod meaning that that person had one parent who was a god and one parent who was a human.
Let's go back to Cronus and Rhea. They are shown here in the middle because they are the king and queen of the gods in this second generation. Originally, Uranus and Gaia were the main gods, but according to one Greek myth, they were replaced by Cronus and Rhea because of the following sequence of events. For some reason, Uranus didn't like the Hecatoncheires and decided to banish them deep within the earth, which both hurt and angered Gaia. Gaia, therefore, made a giant sickle and the Titans to castrate Uranus. Cronus, who was actually the youngest of the Titans, was the only one brave enough to do so. He was successful, and from the blood of Uranus came the Furies, goddesses of vengeance, as well as several giants, the Ash tree nymphs, and, according to some sources, Aphrodite.
Because of this act, Cronus and his partner Rhea became the new king and queen of the gods. But foolishly, Cronus decided to banish the Hecatoncheires, just like his father had done, and therefore it was prophesied that one of Cronus's sons would eventually defeat him, just like he had defeated his father. Because of this, Cronus was scared of his children and decided to eat each of them as soon as they were born. Cronus and Rhea had six children. These children would eventually become the third and final generation of gods, known as the Olympians. The first five were all eaten by Cronus, but when the sixth child, named Zeus, was born, Rhea decided to play a trick on Cronus. She wrapped up a rock and gave it to Cronus instead of the baby. Cronus ate the rock, thinking it was Zeus, and therefore Rhea was able to hide Zeus in a safe place until which time he was old enough to launch a war against his father. That war was known as the Battle of the Titans, and as prophesied, Zeus was able to defeat Cronus, thus becoming the third and final king of the gods. He also managed to cut open Cronus's stomach and release his brothers and sisters. He freed the Hecatoncheires and instead imprisoned the Titans, making the Hecatoncheires their guards.
So let's take a closer look at these six children of Cronus and Rhea. First, there was Poseidon. Poseidon married one of the Nereids and became the new god of the sea. Demeter took over Cronus's role and became the goddess of the harvest. Zeus, of course, became king of the gods but was also the new god of the sky and, in particular, the god of thunder. He married his sister Hera, who became queen of the gods and was the goddess of women. There was also Hades, who became the new god of the underworld, and Hestia, who became the goddess of the hearth or home.
Just like there are twelve main Titans, there are also twelve main Olympians. But because there are only six original siblings, some of Zeus's children are also included in order to come up with the number twelve. In fact, Hades is not included in the twelve, so there are actually seven of Zeus's children who are considered to be main Olympians so that we get that perfect number twelve. So first there's Athena, goddess of wisdom, from which the city of Athens takes its name. She was the daughter of Zeus with his first wife, Metis, one of the Oceanids. Then, with his wife Hera, Zeus had Hephaestus, god of fire, and Ares, god of war. Fourth, we get Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. According to some sources, she's the daughter of Zeus, but according to others, she was born out of the sea when Uranus was castrated. Fifth, there is Hermes, son of Zeus and Maia, who was a daughter of Atlas. Hermes is the messenger of the gods and is the one with the wings on his helmet. He also serves many other roles though, and because of this he's considered both an earth god and a sky god. Finally, we have Apollo and Artemis, the new god of the sun and goddess of the moon. Their mother was Leto, daughter of Coeus and Phoebe. Apollo was also the god of medicine and the arts, and Artemis was also the goddess of hunting. So those seven, together with the five up here, comprised the twelve main Olympian gods.
Now, as you've probably noticed, there are a lot of gods on this chart, and I've been skipping over some of the minor ones. But let me take the time to point out a few more before we go. Most of these are considered to be the various children of Zeus by lots of different females, both goddesses and mortal women. So there's Persephone, daughter of Zeus and Demeter. She was kidnapped by Hades and made the queen of the underworld. Then there's Dike, the goddess of justice. She has a blindfold across her eyes, and you can often see statues of her standing in front of courthouses. There's also the Muses, daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. They were goddesses who inspired musicians and artists. Then, by mortal women, we have Perseus, after whom Percy Jackson from the Rick Riordan books is named, and of course Heracles, perhaps the greatest of all the Greek heroes. Finally, when it comes to the children of Zeus, we cannot forget Dionysus, god of wine, and as such, one of the more popular gods in the Greek pantheon. Sometimes he's considered one of the twelve main Olympians in place of Hestia.
There are a few more gods I'd like to point out. The first is Eros, known to the Romans as Cupid. He was the son of Ares and Aphrodite and is usually portrayed as a baby holding a bow and arrow. It is said that whoever he hits with his arrow will fall in love with the next person they see. Aphrodite also had a child with Hermes, aptly named Hermaphroditus, who was neither male nor female. And finally, Hermes had a son named Pan, who looks like a faun and is the god of shepherding, although in other sources he existed long before Zeus himself.
So, like I said, there are a lot of other characters on this chart that I did not have time to mention, but hopefully this video has given you a general overview of the Greek mythology family tree and how the main Greek and Roman gods are related. Once again, if you'd like to buy the poster version of the chart, you can head over to my website, usefulcharts.com. If you find history, genealogy, and monarchies interesting, be sure to subscribe to the channel. If you check the playlists, you'll find that I have videos covering the family trees of famous dynasties from all over the world. And to see what else I'm up to, follow me on Twitter or Instagram. Thanks for watching.